Uncategorized
- Astronomy
Ring around the Pulsar: Planets may form in a harsh environment
Astronomers have found a disk that has the potential to make planets in the harsh environment surrounding the ultradense remains of an exploded star.
By Ron Cowen - Health & Medicine
See Blind Mice: Algae gene makes sightless eyes sense light
Scientists have prompted mouse-eye cells that aren't normally light sensitive to respond to light.
- Earth
Volcanic mineral caused rare cancer in Turkey
In two Turkish villages, nearly half of all deaths since 1980 have resulted from a form of cancer caused by inhaling erionite, a brittle and fibrous volcanic mineral that looks similar to wool.
By Ben Harder - Planetary Science
Another red spot, by Jove
Jupiter has developed a second red spot, which is now visible in the predawn sky with a telescope 10 inches or larger.
By Ron Cowen - Astronomy
Twin history
The Milky Way and its nearest large galactic neighbor, Andromeda, are more alike than earlier evidence had indicated.
By Ron Cowen - Health & Medicine
Experimental drug targets Alzheimer’s
A novel drug reverses some Alzheimer's-type symptoms in mice.
By Nathan Seppa - Humans
Two-fifths of Amazonian forest is at risk
The Amazon basin's forest may lose 2.1 million square kilometers by 2050 if current development trends go unabated.
By Ben Harder - Anthropology
Chimps scratch out grooming requests
Pairs of adult males in a community of wild African chimps often communicate with gestures.
By Bruce Bower - Animals
Sharpshooter threatens Tahiti by inedibility
A North American insect is menacing Tahitian ecosystems by getting itself killed and proving surprisingly toxic to its predators.
By Susan Milius - Health & Medicine
Parasite can’t survive without its tail
The protozoan that causes African sleeping sickness can't survive in the mammalian bloodstream without its long, whiplike tail.
- Physics
Revealing Covert Actions
The recent merger of high-speed video technology and centuries-old techniques for seeing ordinarily invisible fluctuations of the air is enabling engineers to visualize and study the previously unseen, large-scale behavior of shock waves in explosions and aerodynamics research.
By Peter Weiss - Materials Science
Spin City
Researchers are using a technique called electrospinning to create fibrous mats that have potential applications in drug delivery, wound care, and tissue engineering.